When Anya-Taylor Joy and Miles Teller stepped onto the set of The Gorge, they were shocked by the sheer size of the production as well as where it took their minds.
“Every day we’d go into a different world with a different fog,” The Queen’s Gambit star Anya, 28, tells TV WEEK. “It’s kind of like going into a haunted house or Disneyland.”
“Sometimes I felt like I was in a rave,” Top Gun: Maverick actor Miles, 37, adds.
The Gorge centres on two highly-trained sniper operatives, Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Levi (Miles Teller), who are commanded to stand guard at two towers on opposite sides of a vast, foggy, and highly-classified gorge.
Their task? Protect the world from an unknown evil that lies within the seemingly bottomless ravine. Simple – don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anything out.
However, a condition of their one-year posting is that they do not communicate with one another under any circumstances.
As the months pass, their curiosity about one another grows, and the pair makes the drastic decision to break the rules. This creates a potentially fatal outcome for the pair, as an accident leads them straight into the depths of the chasm.
The film is an amalgamation of genres; romance, action, sci-fi and horror – aiming to scare the pants off the viewer as well as delivering up a love story for the ages.
“The love story really grounds the whole piece,” Miles explains. “For Levi, he’s in such a dark place and in a state of grief in the beginning, and then Drasa is the light that starts to peek through the clouds for him.”
Another major element of filming for the pair were the stunts and physicality required of working on an action film.
“I did this movie directly after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Anya says. “So, I felt very physically fit, but the set pieces in this required a different set of skills for each one. It meant that every day was so exciting because you knew it was going to be something completely different.”
Another thing that was different for Anya was how removed her character Drasa was from her real-life personality.
“A person who is uncomfortable with voyeurism, and I kind of count myself as one of those people, is someone that’s not necessarily comfortable in their own skin,” Anya reveals. “But Drasa really is [comfortable in her skin]. She plays with life, which is something that is completely in contrast to the severity of the job that she does.”
So, for Anya, she used a unique method while filming to get into Drasa’s temperament.
“I find that making a [music] playlist for each of them is really helpful,” she teases. “If you can go into your trailer in the morning after hair and makeup and have a couple of songs that feel like the person, I always feel that’s an easier way of putting on somebody’s skin.”
Where to watch The Gorge in Australia:
Good news, The Gorge released on Apple TV+ in Australia on February 14, 2025.
Stream The Gorge on Apple TV+ from $12.99/mth, with a 7-day free trial.
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